Friday, November 24, 2017

Sales Review: October 2017 - Happy Thanksgiving


Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated here in the states. As you read this, I am either preparing or participating in a feast! Hooray for me.

As Supergirl fans, we should be giving a little thanks for the recent uptick in sales. Since Artgerm came on to do variants, or perhaps since the Cyborg Superman/Xa-Du storyline ended, or perhaps since the Mr. Oz/Doomsday Clock is ramping up, the main title has seen an unswing of almost 33%.

The October numbers have been posted over on ICv2. Here is a link to that report.
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/38911/top-300-comics-actual-october-2017

I have stopped worrying overall about the health of comics long term.

Supergirl #14 was a crossover with New Super-Man. It had Supergirl contemplating ways to control her recently amped up powers. She talks about the inherent desire for people to help one another. She helps a violent misunderstanding become a community building exercise. It was a very nice issue.



The sales were down a bit.

Supergirl #14 had 31720 issues ordered, down just over 2000 but still much higher than the 22K we saw at this titles sales nadir.

I suppose stores are no re-adjusting to the added interest without over-ordering.

But to be sandwiched between Suicide Squad and Nightwing is a nice place for this title to be.


Superwoman's cancellation was ordered and that book is still sitting at about 16K in sales.

New Super-Man has not been canceled although it is nearing the end of the first major arc and the culmination of his training.

New Super-Man #16 sold just over 11,500 units. That is pretty low.

I do wonder if DC is aiming for diversity and is more than happy to keep this book on the shelf. I have enjoyed this book since its inception. I doubt any new 'big names' artists will be attached to this book. But for now, while it is being published, I am happy and entertained.

Thanks for coming here and reading my nonsense!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this site!

"Supergirl #14 had 31720 issues ordered, down just over 2000 but still much higher than the 22K we saw at this titles sales nadir."

I know the fact that sales got better pissed off some *coughhaterscough* people.

A pity sales have dropped a bit, but let's hope they become stable. Nonethteless, I think Supergirl should make some appearances in other books and being member of some team. Definitely she should have made an appearance in "The Oz Effect". Wasn't post-Reborn Superman rallying the Super-Family to fight Oz? What a waste.

Superwoman and New Super-Man's sales are bad, which is sadly not unexpected. Superman's core books aren't selling a lot. So two ancillary titles which come out the same week starring a character who had never gotten her own book in seven decades and a completely new character... If Kara Zor-El isn't a big seller right when her own show is on air, what chances Lana Lang got? Even if you ignore the fact Lois fans were baited?

I'm not sure how rebranding "New Super-Man" will save the book. Does DC hope the new title will lure Justice League into the book? We'll see.

I think the Super-books are about to go through a shake-up the next year. AC, Superman and hopefully Supergirl will survive. Maybe Super-Sons. But I think we're about to see some changes.

Some fans over CBR are clamoring for a third title starring Superman -which I think is a dumb idea-, a Lois Lane book -which would be nice but I doubt there's an audience for it right now- or even a book featuring Linda Danvers and her daughter -which I think would be a low-seller given the current comic-book market and besides I don't trust anyone other than Peter David to treat Linda right-.

KET said...

It definitely seems like the alternate covers from Artgerm are providing a positive boost in interest to Supergirl's book. That's a great sign for the moment.

With no other media tie-ins that could have maintained sales and continued interest in their concepts, it seems that books like New Superman or Super-Sons were running on borrowed time to begin with.

KET

Professor Feetlebaum said...

Acknowledging that Artgerm's covers have been a major part of the sales upswing, I wonder if the slight dip for issue 14 could be because of Kara not being in costume (except for the small figure flying by in the distance).

Looking at the entire list, it's interesting how Batman related titles dominate the top ten. Counting DC titles only, Supergirl comes in at number 32. If you count just DC on-going titles, Supergirl is at number 24.

Yesterday (or the day before), Artgerm posted the cover for Supergirl 17 on his Facebook and Instagram pages. The cover tells a story, rather than a pin-up style. He also wrote this:
"After this I will be launching a new set of covers in which I will redraw some of the iconic Supergirl costumes in history."

That should be fun.



KET said...

"Yesterday (or the day before), Artgerm posted the cover for Supergirl 17 on his Facebook and Instagram pages. The cover tells a story, rather than a pin-up style."

Saw this first one, and the edited version afterward. He changed the child's face so that it was more in keeping with the action being presented. Nice stuff.

KET